


from now on

by mysterytwin



Category: Trollhunters (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Gen, LET THEM BE HAPPY 2K18, Post canon, Reunion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-30
Updated: 2018-05-30
Packaged: 2019-05-15 20:38:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14797569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mysterytwin/pseuds/mysterytwin
Summary: Change is good, but it’s not easy. It’s lonely being left in Arcadia, and Toby wishes his friends were with him.





	from now on

**Author's Note:**

  * For [IncognitoPhenomenon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/IncognitoPhenomenon/gifts).



> bunch of angst coming your way everybody. also happy birthday inco!! have a great day!

Change is good, but it’s not easy.

Winning a war leaves behind bruises and scars, and brings nightmares of other outcomes. It lightens up a path to those who are hopeless, to those who remain afraid. It fixes things, although sometimes, some of those are meant to stay broken. When the smoke clears and the dust settles, a new day begins. A new start.

Toby is left in Arcadia, his heart a steadying pace as he watches the sunset with Aaarrrgghh!!! next to him. It’s a little hard to believe that it’s all finally over, that Gunmar is dead and Morgana is gone. But it’s good, it’s peaceful, and it’s  _safe_. A safe feeling. It’s all finally over.

But there are always losses to a battle, and Toby’s hoping that it doesn’t run too deep.

 

* * *

 

The days that pass by are a bit lonely, if Toby’s being honest. He’s glad that Aaarrrgghh!!! is with him to keep him company and to protect Arcadia with him, but there’s an underlying longing that he feels. He misses the others, misses the thrill of adventure, misses what everything used to be—when things were fun and simple, back at the very start.

There’s not much crime going around now, anyway. Crime rewinds to regular old crime again, and it’s never anything unusual. There are no trolls left in town as far as he knows, so there’s isn’t really much to worry about. He knows this should be a good thing—and it  _is—_ but it really is a lot more… _boring_.

Sometimes he’ll go on dates with Darci, and she’s sweet and funny and kind. She understands him, and she’s trying her best to grasp what happened. Most people are just trying to forget it all, and he can’t really blame them. But it’s nice to have it as a story to keep. He’s a lot stronger now than when he began.

(He tries not to notice the whispers on the streets, the questions lingering every corner that he turns. He knows Eli and Steve try to provide knowledge, but it’s rarely the full story. Councilwoman Nuñez tries to keep things down, though it’s not enough. He’ll answer their questions one day, but not right now. Not alone.)

There’s not a day that goes by that he doesn’t message Jim or Claire. He misses them, and he’s not afraid to tell them that. It also lets him make sure that they’re okay, that they’re safe and alive. Sometimes they reply, but they don’t ever talk for long. He knows rebuilding Troll Market must be a lot, and transferring a bunch of trolls to a land unknown—that’s probably harder.

Still, he holds on to their promise that they’ll come back someday.

 

* * *

 

Sometimes, he imagines what it would be like if his parents were still around.

Nana would still be living with them, he likes to believe, because he doesn’t really know what a world without her there constantly would be like. It’d be…different. Very different. There’d be someone to pick him up from school, to clap for him during graduation (not that Nana doesn’t have that covered), to be there for him the way Barbara Lake is there for her own son.

It hurts when he thinks about them, even though he didn’t know them very well. He may have been young, but he knows that they loved him. And it’s nice to think that there are people up there looking out for him.

He won’t ever admit it, but he understands the way Jim loves his mom so fiercely, why he wouldn’t hesitate to give it up all for her. He understands that much, because if his parents came back, he wouldn’t ever let go again.

 

* * *

 

“You okay, big guy?”

The video game is paused on the screen, and Aaarrrgghh!!! places his controller down on the ground. He sighs, heavy and a little sad, eyes not quite meeting Toby’s.

The troll shakes his head. He points to the window to their right, out to the night sky. “Miss Blinky.”

In an instant, Toby understands. He’ll never be able to comprehend the depth of Blinky and Aaarrrgghh!!!’s relationship, but they’ve been together for hundreds of years—being separated must be awful.

“Yeah,” Toby says. “I miss him, too.”

“Miss Jim and Claire,” Aaarrrgghh!!! continues mournfully, eyes downcast.

Toby moves closer to him and pats his hand. “It’s okay, wingman. They’ll come back one day.”

The troll nods, but there’s a tinge of doubt in the way he looks at Toby. “Not enough.”

Toby fishes his phone out of his pocket, and opens his messages. “Do you want me to tell Jim that you want to talk to Blinky? They might be busy, but it’s worth a shot.”

Aaarrrgghh!!! nods with a smile. Toby presses Jim’s contact and calls him. It rings once, twice, before getting picked up.

“Hey, Jimbo! How are you doing?” he says, turning on the speaker.

“Doing fine, Tobes. We found a Heartstone today, so all we need to do is set up a brand new Troll Market,” Jim says, his voice a bit muted and covered in a tiny static. “What’s up?”

“Is Blinky there? Aaarrrgghh!!! wants to talk to him,” Toby says, and as much as he wants to continue talking to Jim, Aaarrrgghh!!! needs this more. “He misses him.”

“Oh, yeah, sure! I’ll hand it right over. Tell Aaarrrgghh!!! I say hi.” There’s a bit of rustling on the other end, and Jim is saying something that Toby quite can’t make out.

“—misses you,” is what he hears before Blinky’s voice comes flooding through. Toby hands the phone over to Aaarrrgghh!!!, who holds it carefully, almost as though it was absolutely delicate.

“Aaarrrgghh!!!, oh how I’ve missed you, too, old friend!” Blinky exclaims. Toby can almost imagine him waving all four of his arms around as he speaks. “If I were there with you right now, I would’ve given you hug! I wish you were here, there have been so many exciting things happening! First—”

“I’ll leave you to it,” Toby says softly with a smile, before exiting the room.

The happy way Aaarrrgghh!!! looks is enough for him to feel a lot better.

 

* * *

 

In dreams, they don’t win.

Voices whisper doubt, and his imagination only replays the bad parts of this war. Rewinds his bruises and scars, his fears running wild, Jim falling to the ground, Claire being possessed.

He dies, sometimes, and when Death comes to take him away, he doesn’t put up a fight. He lets himself breathe into it. There’s no light coming toward him—only more and more darkness.

The battle is a movie that keeps playing on repeat in his head, but it never has the same ending. It’s never a happy story. They never win.

He only ever sees Jim screaming in pain, watches himself fall from the sky and miss the ground, listens to Claire’s voice shouting in agony. Morgana wins over and over and over again, with promises to come back again. With promises to never stop.

In dreams, nothing goes right.

In dreams, the Eternal Night is real.

(And the thing is, it doesn’t feel like just one big battle. The war started the moment he first stepped foot into Troll Market, the moment Jim became the chosen one. This was something a long time coming.

And so were the nightmares.)

 

* * *

 

**eliwantstobelieve:**

> Toby!!!!
> 
> TOBY
> 
> TOBES
> 
> I NEED TO SHOW YOU SOMETHING
> 
> RIGHT NOW!!
> 
> PLEASE
> 
> ITS VERY IMPORTANT
> 
> TOBY
> 
> Wait i just realized you don't have my address
> 
> OK HOLD ON
> 
> PLEASE HURRY ITS IMPORTANT
> 
> LIKE ARCADIA MIGHT BE IN DANGER  IMPORTANT
> 
> TOBY

**warhammer:**

> eli are u Kidding me
> 
> 200 messages??????
> 
> are you Okay
> 
> im coming calm urself
> 
> also only one guy calls me tobes
> 
> and thats jim

 

* * *

 

_Morgana takes a step closer toward them, her laughter cynical and loud, booming all over across town. He feels his heart shaking, trying to escape from his chest. They’re all trapped, her magic surrounding them, and there’s no way out. It would only take one blow to destroy them. And then it would be over._

_But it never comes._

_Instead, Jim takes the hit. He falls to the ground miles away, and he has half a mind to try to escape to reach for him, but the anger has fueled him, reaching his lungs. Claire throws the staff at him for him to destroy—and he does, with pleasure. The portal closes, and the Pale Lady disappears._

_(For now.)_

_They race toward Jim, and Claire cradles his burnt body, delicate and soft. She whispers words of poetry and past, but it’s not enough. Jim doesn’t stir. He doesn’t wake up._

_Just like Morgana, he’s gone, too._

_(And all these woes shall serve for sweet discourses in our times to come.)_

 

* * *

He wakes up.

With a racing heart and sweaty palms, Toby blinks, taking in the darkness around him. The moon shines brightly against his window, illuminating little parts of the room. He remembers, remembers what happened, tries to forget the nightmare. It wasn’t real.  _This_ is real. He’s alive, Claire’s alive,  _Jim_  is alive.

(He tries to recap everything. His name is Toby Domzalski. His best friends are Jim Lake Jr. and Claire Nuñez. Today, he went to Eli’s house and talked about aliens. Yesterday, he played video games with Aaarrrgghh!!!. He’s a Trollhunter. And he loves his friends more than anything.)

They’re all okay.  _But why doesn’t it feel like it?_

With shaky hands, he reaches for the phone on his desk, and dials a number he knows all too well.

It rings thrice before getting picked up.

“Toby?”

He remembers nights where Jim would call him, voice shaky and terrified. 

“Toby, are you okay?” Jim asks, but it’s softer this time. “Is everything okay? What’s wrong?”

Somehow, it grounds him. It feels _real_. Jim is alive and he’s okay and he’s here.

“Everything’s fine,” Toby says, almost above a whisper. “I’m talking to you.”

“Was it—was it a nightmare?” It’s nervous, the way Jim asks. Toby doesn’t blame him. He knows what it feels like to be on the other side. Jim’s had too many nightmares any normal teenager should.

He exhales. “Yeah,” Toby says.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

 _Not necessarily_. “No, uh, could you just keep talking? Tell me about your day, or—or something? How’s Claire?”

“Oh! Yeah, uh, we started moving everyone in today. We found a space begin enough right next to the Heartstone, and it’s—it’s looking really good, Tobes. Claire’s been missing home a lot, and since we’ll be done quickly, I think we’ll be able to come home soon. It’ll be nice to see you again.”

“That’s good,” he manages to say. “I’m glad everything’s going well.”

“What if—what if you talked about your day? Maybe that would help,” Jim suggests.

“Okay.” He breathes, in and out. He tries to take the image of Jim’s lifeless body out of his head. “Eli’s been messaging me nonstop, so I went over to his house today. He told me he thought there were aliens in Arcadia. Can you believe that?  _Aliens_! And not only that, but he said Aja and Krel—those two weird geniuses, the siblings, remember them?—were aliens! Which kinda makes sense actually, the more I think about it—and oh my gosh, Jim, they’re totally aliens!”

Jim laughs, soft but sure. “Aliens, huh?”

“I’m not kidding, Jimbo! I really think Eli is on to something!”

“Okay, okay,” Jim says, a bit serious. “Just—if anything major happens, call me, okay? We’ll come.”

“Yeah, yeah, of course,” Toby says. He can’t really wrap his mind around anything right now—it also doesn’t help that it’s the middle of the night—but he’s pretty sure that there are aliens in Arcadia. He better ask Eli to tell him more in the morning. “And—uh, my nightmare. You died. In the battle.”

He’s not sure what caused him to blurt it out like that, but Jim doesn’t say anything, probably surprised.

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“Tobes—”

He draws a shaky breath. “It’s okay, Jim. I—I know that’s always a risk, and I’ve known that since day one, but I don’t know what I would do if I lost you. You’re my best friend.”

“And you’re mine,” he says. “I never wanted you to have to live with my mistakes and my decisions. I’m sorry. I should have never dragged you into this.”

“Hey, hey, no, it’s okay,” Toby says. “I told you. I’m glad we took the canal that morning, and I’m glad you told me everything from the very start. I wouldn’t trade any of this for the world.”

After a beat, Jim says, “Okay."

“Don’t beat yourself up over it. We won. There’s nothing to worry about. If we can handle real life stuff, then we can totally handle a few nightmares, right?”

“Right,” Jim replies, sounding sure. “Stay safe, okay? Claire and I still plan on those tacos and enchiladas when we come back.”

“Yeah,” he agrees. “And Claire—how is she? She told me she was having some nightmares about, uh, the possession. Is she doing okay?”

Jim sighs worriedly. “I think she’s getting better.”

“That’s good,” he says. A silence settles between them, stretching over for miles and miles. The space between them has grown in distance, but Toby doesn’t plan on drowning in it. “Take care of yourself, Jimbo. Go get some sleep, yeah?”

“Okay,” Jim says quietly. “Good night, Tobes.”

“Good night,” he whispers, and then the call ends.

When he falls asleep again that night, Jim is alive.

 

* * *

 

Toby remembers a day, a long time ago, when Jim left to visit his grandparents for the summer. Those were the longest months of Toby’s life. He didn’t really have anyone to talk to back then. It was really lonely.

And he still feels it now. He’s used to a boy living across the street from him who’ll look out his window and talk to him through a walkie-talkie. But now, the windows of his room are closed and the lights are always off, clearly empty.

He’s used to hanging out in Jim’s backyard or in his living room and just going on movie marathons. He’s used to biking everywhere with Jim, practicing their skills, or counting the stars. He’s spent most of his life with Jim, and it’s a lot harder now that he’s gone.

When Jim went into the Darklands, he had Claire to keep him company and to keep him busy. It was nice talking to her about Jim, about everything, because she understood almost the same way Jim did.  _Almost_. But it was good, even then, to have someone to lean on. And now she’s gone, too.

They’d come back for him, wouldn’t they?

 

* * *

 

The next week passes in a blur, and fortunately, nothing weird has happened yet. Even with the knowledge of possible aliens lurking around, Toby’s yet to find anything unusual—that isn’t trolls.

He hears the doorbell ring from downstairs, a loud jingle throughout the house. He paused the game to listen in, but it’s hard. Nana exclaims something he can’t understand, but he does hear her calling his name to come down.

Aaarrrgghh!!! had gone out earlier to take in some fresh air, so maybe he just came back and Nana forgot he was living with them. Still, he makes his way down the stairs—not without almost tripping over three different cats, it’s a miracle they’re all alive with a troll living with them, really—and finds the door still swung open.

“Nana?” he calls out, and he finds her in the kitchen, humming to herself.

“Oh, Toby Pie! There’s a surprise waiting for you outside, go and have a look! I think you’ll like it!” she says cheerfully.

Toby smiles, but it’s half-hearted. “Nana, you know you can’t really surprise me anymore. I know Santa and the Tooth Fairy aren’t real—and it’s not my birthday, you know that, right? It’s not a holiday, too, so—”

He stops in his tracks as he stands by the door, eyes wide.

Because Jim is here. He’s  _here_.

“Surprise.”

And it doesn’t take him a second to tackle his best friend in a tight hug. Jim laughs, and it sounds so much better than through a glitchy phone.

“What—how are you—oh my gosh, Jim—it’s you!” he shouts, squeezing him one more time before letting go. “I can’t believe it—how—”

“Woah, there,” Jim says, a light smile tipped on his lips. “Slow down.”

Tears are slowly filling his eyes. He hugs Jim again. “I can’t believe you’re here. I missed you so much.”

“I missed you, too, Tobes,” he says softly.

“Are Claire and Blinky here, too?”

Jim nods. “They’re all waiting by the cliff. We accidentally bumped into Aaarrrgghh!!! on the way here, so they’re all there now. And we brought some tacos and enchiladas, too.”

“Okay,” he says, as he wipes his eyes. “Okay.”

He laughs. “It’s nice to be back in Arcadia.”

“I’m glad you’re home.”

“Yeah, it feels a lot better.”

“Come on, I’m hungry,” Toby says, taking Jim’s hand. He’s still getting used to his best friend’s new height as a troll, but it’s okay. They’ll be fine.

They head into the forest, but this time, danger doesn’t find them.

 

* * *

 

“Hey, I wanna ask you something.”

Toby turns to his left where Jim sits, the stars shining down upon them. They’re the last ones there, everyone had left for the Lake household with stomachs full of food. Jim had insisted on watching the sunset, and now they’re still there.

“Go shoot, buddy,” Toby says easily, pointing a finger gun at him.

Jim cracks a smile. “Do you—okay, I know this sounds a bit crazy and you probably won’t want to anymore, but uh—do you want to come with us? When we head back to New Jersey? It’ll just be for the rest of the summer, and they’re working on building a gyre there that can connect to one here, so it’ll be much easier to move back and forth.”

Jim takes in a nervous breath. “I know you might not want to anymore because it’s a lot of work, but I missed you a lot, and I was wondering if maybe—you’d still want to come? It’ll be like—like a summer vacation of sorts.”

“Yes,” Toby says, but it feels too soft.

Jim blinks. “What? Really?”

“Yeah,” he repeats, louder now. “I would love to. This is gonna be so awesome!”

Jim’s beaming. “That’s great! I—I’m really happy.”

“But what about Aaarrrgghh?” Toby asks, more quiet. “I can’t just leave him.”

“Uh, actually, we—Claire, Blinky, and I—planned to ask the both of you if you wanted to come, and Blinky asked him earlier and he said he’d do it if you said yes, too,” Jim tells him. “So he’s coming, too.”

Relief floods him instantly. “Really? That’s good.”

“Eli and Steve seem to have it covered, anyway,” Jim says with a sheepish smile. 

Toby nods, and places an arm around Jim’s shoulders. “Thank you,” he says earnestly. “Seriously, you have no idea how boring it is here without you.”

Jim laughs. “From now on, we’ll all be a team again. Together, all of us.”

Toby grins. “Sounds good to me.”


End file.
